The year was 1999 when Dr Manmohan Singh contested a Lok Sabha election for the first (and only) time from South Delhi, an election he lost . I was working at NDTV where we had an election programme ‘Follow the leader’ that involved spending a day on the campaign trail with a political leader. My assignment was to track Dr Singh. Easier said than done. Dr Singh was notoriously camera shy. We spent the first half of the day having breakfast with him and then going through his vast library. We even accompanied him for his nomination filing where he appeared distinctly uncomfortable with all the pushing and shoving.
Dr Singh was unfailingly polite right through the shoot but on television we were looking for a bit more campaign ‘colour’. That’s when we learnt that it was the birthday of Dr Singh’s grandson and a small party had been organised in the home garden. ‘Can we please film a sequence with the family, it will make good TV ’ we pleaded. ‘No, no question about it, you will not turn the camera on my family, it is our private space ,’ was the stern reply.
If there is a lesson to embrace from Dr Singh’s life and times it is how to maintain personal dignity through good times and bad. Not once did he ever allow the external noise and pressure of being in public life to ever really affect his sense of equanimity. He may have become India’s path breaking finance minister who heralded game changing economic reform and the prime minister who shepherded the crucial Indo US nuclear deal but not once did he seek the arc lights for himself or any family member . I recall we played the song ‘Singh is King’ on a TV show after the nuclear deal was passed and his office rang up to say that the high pitched euphoria was avoidable. On another occasion, we chose him as ‘Indian of the year’ for his many accomplishments. Rather than come to the event that was being held at a five star hotel , he reluctantly agreed to receive the award at the prime minister’s residence. ‘There are many Indians who have achieved far more than me ,’ was his modest response.
Indeed, in an age where self promotion and marketing is considered masterful political strategy, Dr Singh stood out as a reminder of a gentler age when you didn’t need to wear your CV in your sleeve. This was the pre Insta-twitter social media era where a letter of quiet appreciation was enough recognition . You allowed your work to talk with a sense of quiet satisfaction at a job well done.
All through his career, Dr Singh worked incredibly long hours but never made a fetish of it. He had come up the hard way in life and so rigour and self discipline was built into his working style. In one of our last personal meetings , he recalled how his family escaped the horrors of Partition, how he grew up in relative poverty and how it was sheer academic scholarship that enabled him to rise in life. Sensing he was getting a trifle emotional, something all too rare, his caring wife Gursharan stepped in with a firm tone. ‘Bas karo, Let’s have tea now!’ Mrs Singh was clearly the big boss at home.
But as Dr Singh spoke movingly about his early years, I was struck by the fact that his life was a precursor to the unfolding story of an aspirational, merit driven ‘new’ India, an India that he paradoxically helped fashion. In the India that Dr Singh grew up in, there were all too few opportunities for those outside a privileged elite. If you had to break barriers, then academic excellence through meritorius scholarship was one way forward. Dr Singh may have been an ‘accidental’ prime minister but he was an unmistakeable meritocrat who had shaped his career by making the best of every limited opportunity possible. By contrast, the post 1991 India is one of unimaginable opportunities that he helped nurture.
The naturally self-effacing, soft spoken but self-confident persona is perhaps one reason why he was able to handle the pressures of high office without being trapped in ego, arrogance or personality cult at any time. He knew his political limitations and worked within them, always committed to the larger cause of nation building. And taking the necessary tough decisions like the nuclear deal when required, not by diktat but through consensus and dialogue.
Maybe he should have retired in 2009 when he had a heart problem and his health was slowly beginning to fade. Coalition compulsions were mounting and he could have possibly exited rather than suffer the blame for every false step in UPA 2. His personal integrity was intact but the charges of corruption facing his ministers scarred his second term.
And yet, make no mistake, history will judge him more than kindly. An entire generation has been shaped by the reforms ushered in 1991, millions have been lifted out of poverty and India has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Typically, Dr Singh would admit that this wasn’t an individual effort but a team that came together to drive the economic engine forward.
As a journalist, I will remember him fondly for another special reason. We often criticized his government as a news network but not once did he or anyone from his government call up to admonish me. In fact, when I met him once at an official function after I had written a harsh editorial on his handling of the 2 G auction, he smiled at me: ‘I read your column. You have raised some important issues..’ How many others would have responded with such grace?
A final memory. In 2004, after the astonishing verdict that really surprised the nation, there was feverish speculation on who would be the next prime minister. I was having tea with Sir David Butler, the original guru of psephology, and someone who knew Dr Singh rather well from their days together as academics in Oxford University. ‘Do you know Rajdeep, I think I have an answer to the question of who will be prime minister, I know of someone who is the ideal person to lead a coaltion government. ‘ When he mentioned Dr Singh, I asked him why. ‘Because India needs a good man at the top and Dr Singh is just the leader who will always put nation before self..’
Indeed, decency is a grossly under-rated value. Dr Singh was an honorable man who exemplified decency and goodness in public life.
